I'm not an economist, so I won't address your blog point by point. I've read many comparison's between U.S. and Europe post-pandemic recovery. U.S. always comes out on top. See Brookings Institute (Oct 2024) quote, for example:
The global financial crisis permanently scarred the U.S. economy.
Economic growth never regained its trend rate from before the crisis, which caused a substantial output gap to open up in the decade that followed, with chronically low inflation and discouraged workers among many symptoms.
We survey the U.S. recovery since COVID-19 and compare it to its G10 peer countries.
The U.S. is significantly outperforming its peers in investment and GDP per capita, even as the labor market is showing signs of strong as well as inclusive growth.
This recovery has been possible even as inflation has fallen back substantially, as the impact from supply chain disruptions at the height of COVID-19 has faded.
Overall, this makes the recovery—and fiscal stimulus behind it—a success.
Here is a quote from Fortune( (Feb 2024), which includes China in the comparison:
The U.S. economy has experienced the most significant reversal of fortunes, fighting back to its pre-pandemic growth trajectory not once, but twice. It may even end up overshooting that old trend.
The eurozone had its own, less favorable, reversal of fortunes. The Ukraine war dealt the bloc a particularly bad hand. Though the eurozone too proved resilient, avoiding a recession in the nearly two years since the war started, its growth momentum is broken, and the bloc is now pushed off its pre-pandemic course.
China’s path is another astonishing reversal of fortunes. Its initial recovery was the envy of the rest of the world, yet the economy has now been pushed off its pre-pandemic trend and a return to it looks challenging.
From Axios (1/2024):
The United States economy grew faster than any other large advanced economy last year — by a wide margin — and is on track to do so again in 2024.
Why it matters: America's outperformance is rooted in its distinctive structural strengths, policy choices, and some luck. It reflects a fundamental resilience in the world's largest economy that is easy to overlook amid the nation's problems.
As I said, I'm not an economist. I can't sort the charts and data. I depend on 'experts' to analyze that stuff for me. The Biden Administration must have done something right. Part of the economic resilience was due, no doubt, to intrinsic strengths in the U.S. economy. Still, if a president is going to get blame or credit, then Biden gets credit.
Why Trump Won (only 49.8% of the voters voted for him, which means slightly more than half of the voters wanted someone else to win).
I have a humble opinion. I'm just an elderly woman with no access to any privileged information. This is why Biden lost, in my opinion:
He was an old man. He never should have run. He probably shouldn't have run the first time. He had obvious cognitive issues, which became tragically apparent in his June debate. The voters deserved an open primary where they could have chosen a viable candidate. They didn't have that. By the time Harris came in, it was too late. Anyway, she never had charisma. Never had the appeal that a true leader needed. She was OK and competent, but she was up against a charismatic figure (OMG, why do people find that man charismatic). Then there were cultural issues and the Democrats were on the wrong side of those. People really don't want transexuals playing on their kids' sports teams. It's a minor issue, but became symbolic of an administration that was out of step with people's values. The media: Right wing media became an arm of the Trump campaign. This was powerful enough, but then Musk entered the fray. He threw X and his money behind Trump. He became a powerful cultural influence among young male voters. Finally, the attempted assassination of Trump and his immediate response highlighted the vibrancy of this candidate as opposed to obviously feeble Biden.
Yes all that is true about his age and how the handled the nomination. But if the GDP growth could be felt by the average people and the prices weren't so high then Kamala would have won. Biden held the Economy and the prestige of the US he was there for his allies but many small mistakes made Trump powerful and this time around he will destroy the way we know the world. Here in Europe we already feeling it.
The terrible part of this truth is that many people will welcome the change. I personally cling to freedom and democracy as precious. There are many in the world who see these as dangerous. They welcome the control of an autocrat. They think of this control as a guarantee of order.
Perhaps I am dark, but I see a future in which the world is divided into three spheres of influence. Trump is cozying up to Xi and Putin. Each of these leaders will agree to respect the territorial ambitions of the others. They will chop up the world so each of them has a tight control over markets in their sphere.
It happened in the 19th century Berlin Conference, when European powers chopped up Africa. It happened at Yalta, when Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill divided up Europe.
Trump speaks the language of Xi and Putin. The American people have been bambooozled into believing this man will forge a prosperous, secure future for them. Perhaps he will. At what cost? At the cost of our freedom. A cost that means one day I won't be able to write a comment like this.
Oh heavens. Just read this, after I finished this comment:
Trump seeks summit with Xi and Putin
Sometimes I don't want to be right.🙁